Javier Cruz, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., seven minutes after a lethal flow of drugs was started into his arms.

When asked if he had any final words, Cruz quietly said, "No," glancing over to his ex-wife and brother, who watched through glass a few feet away.

However, in a statement released by prison officials afterward, Cruz said, "Thank you for setting me free. God bless you all."

Cruz was condemned for killing Louis Menard Neal, 71, and James Michael Ryan, 69, during a monthlong crime spree motivated by his drug craving.

"He was willing to do whatever was required in order to be the serial killer that he was," said Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Robert McClure, who prosecuted Cruz.

"He's like the wolf preying on the weak sheep."

After Cruz was put to death, James Ryan said his father's death had been avenged.

"Justice is done," said Ryan, 46, of Austin, who witnessed the execution with his brother, Daniel Ryan, 43, of Tampa, Fla.

"You don't get a big charge of satisfaction. There's no pleasure in this," James Ryan said.

"Cruz had the easy way out."

None of Neal's family was present.

The execution was the 15th this year in Texas, where a record 37 condemned prisoners received lethal injection in 1997.

Neal was killed on June 7, 1991, after he invited Cruz and co-defendant Antonio Ovalle to his apartment. The three were listening to music and drinking vodka when Cruz demanded money from Neal. When Neal insisted he had none, Cruz began beating him.

According to state records, Cruz gagged and bound Neal with socks before hitting him with a hammer, strangling him with a bathrobe belt and hanging him from a shower railing.

Cruz and Ovalle then fled the apartment, taking a television, a radio, some suits and a gym bag. Neal's body was found five days later.

Ryan's nude body was found the day after his July 14, 1991, slaying in the bedroom of his home in Olmos Park, an upscale San Antonio suburb. Cruz strangled Ryan and left with his television and Cadillac, according to state records.

After selling parts of the Cadillac to buy heroin, Cruz invited Ovalle and several others back to Ryan's house to steal more items.

Ovalle later told police that Cruz admitted choking Ryan.

Ovalle pleaded guilty and testified against Cruz in exchange for two consecutive life sentences. In addition to his testimony, fingerprints taken from a plastic grocery bag and a box of liquor found in Ryan's house matched those of Cruz.

But Cruz's trial attorney, George Scharmen, said Cruz was a nonviolent man who was framed by Ovalle so he could save himself.

"I felt sorry for him," Scharmen said of Cruz, describing him as "a pitiful character.

"It seemed out of character that he would be someone who would commit these two horrible murders."